5/14/2008 @ 6:00PM

In Pictures: Gadgets For Stopping Identity Theft

Bank of America’s SafePass

Cost & availability: Free to customers

Last September, Bank of America introduced a program called SafePass, designed to make the cellphone another barrier to slow down would-be identity thieves. When a SafePass user performs a banking transaction online, the bank sends him or her a text message and waits for a given passcode to be entered before allowing the transaction to proceed. The result is what security researchers call “two-factor authentication.” In theory, stealing a customer’s financial identity would also require stealing his or her physical cellphone.